"Joseph Barnett was then called, and said he was a labourer working by the riverside, and up to Saturday last he lived at 24 New-street, Bishopsgate, having been staying at 21, Ponpool-lane since then."

It's a good example of the newspaper reporters being a little more accurate than what you charmingly refer to as the "inquest source" which, you have omitted to mention, has Barnett saying "I now live at my sisters 21 Portpool Lane, Grays Inn Road."

Why in the world would the police let his alibi go untested or take it lightly when he was the most likely suspect in one of the most gruesome murders in London history?

c.d.

But the only way most theories work is by assuming the police were so stupid they couldnt find their backside with a mirror on a stick. Then they use the fact that most of the police file has gone missing to say 'See you can't prove the police checked".

Just crazy.

If there's one thing police forces have consistently done well it's routine following the dots.

__________________
G U T

There are two ways to be fooled, one is to believe what isn't true, the other is to refuse to believe that which is true.

They would have to know if Barnett can go in and out of Bullers between 2-5 A.M. without somebody knowing.He played whist until half past 12.I do not know about his employment though at that day.
Blotchy is the better suspect in Kelly's case - he could have returned to Miler's Court to kill. Here is a drunk woman,asleep,alone, who's door can be opened without a key.After the double event it was harder,because of more police, to roam the streets.

Barnett was a suspect and questioned closely by police. He had an alibi-he was playing wisk and was at his boarding house. plus he didn't act suspiciously-cooperated with police and appeared at the inquest.

Now that being said. she had recently broken up with her, he was at her place earlier the night of her death, and suspects often get away with false alibis. plus the heart thing. he could have snuck out of his boarding house perhaps in the middle of the night. I still have him on my second tier of suspects.

__________________"Is all that we see or seem
but a dream within a dream?"
-Edgar Allan Poe

"...the man and the peaked cap he is said to have worn
quite tallies with the descriptions I got of him."
-Frederick G. Abberline